RESOURCES FOR RACE DIRECTORS

Registration for The Weather Channel Atlanta Marathon and Half Marathon Exceeds 10,000 for the First Time in 46-Year History

Atlanta, November 19, 2008 - The Atlanta Track Club, organizer of The Weather Channel Atlanta Marathon and Half Marathon, announced that total registration for their fall event, has exceeded 10,000 for the first time in its 46-year history. Around 1,000 runners have registered for the marathon while half marathon registrations are over 9,000.

Prior to 2008, the largest event in the Thanksgiving Day marathon and half marathon history was in 2000 with just over 8,800 total runners. Nearly 8,400 runners participated in last year’s event. Much of the growth in the event has come from the half marathon which has over 20 percent more registered runners than in 2007. 

“The number of people taking on the challenge of long distance running events continues to increase nationally –especially at the half marathon distance,” stated Tracey Russell, Executive Director of the Atlanta Track Club. “With the help of The Weather Channel as the new title sponsor for the event, we’ve had the opportunity to be more aggressive with our marketing efforts and it certainly has paid off with our increased registration.”

In addition to an increase in the number of runners at the starting line, participants in this year’s The Weather Channel Atlanta Marathon and Half Marathon will also notice new elements put in place to enhance their race experience. The ChronoTrack D-Tag system, a new timing technology replacing the ChampionChip used in past years, will be part of both races. The new timing system provides runners with a light-weight, disposable timing tag in addition to preventing post-race hassles.

In the half marathon, starting corrals along with a wave start have been added to ensure a quick and smooth beginning to the race. All participants in the half marathon will be assigned to one of five starting corrals based on their anticipated finish time. Runners in the first three corrals will take off at 7:00 a.m. followed by a second wave of runners in the fourth and fifth corrals at 7:08 a.m. The wave start will help ease course congestion during the first few miles of the half marathon.

Runners interested in participating in The Weather Channel Atlanta Marathon and Half Marathon can register online at www.atlantatrackclub.org through November 23.

In March 2008, the Atlanta Track Club signed The Weather Channel as title sponsor for the 47th running of the Atlanta Marathon and Half Marathon. The Weather Channel Atlanta Marathon events will be held on Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 2008 and include a marathon, half marathon and a 1-mile fun run for kids.

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About the Atlanta Track Club

The Atlanta Track Club is a non-profit organization established to inspire and engage the community to achieve health and fitness through running. With more then 9,000 members, the ATC is the second largest running organization in the United States. In addition to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race – the largest running event in the US – and The Weather Channel Atlanta Marathon and Half Marathon, the Atlanta Track Club directs more than 25 running events per year. For more information on the Atlanta Track Club, please visit www.atlantatrackclub.org.

About The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel, a 24-hour weather network, is seen in more than 98 million U.S. households. The Weather Channel reaches more than 38 million unique users online per month through weather.com and products including The Weather Channel Desktop, making it the most popular source of online weather, news and information according to Nielsen//Net Ratings. The Weather Channel also operates The Weather Channel HD; Weatherscan, a 24-hour, all-local weather network; The Weather Channel Radio Network; The Weather Channel Newspaper Services; and is the leading weather information provider for emerging technologies. This includes broadband and interactive television applications and wireless weather products including the most popular content site on the Mobile Web. In September 2008, The Weather Channel Companies were purchased by a consortium made up of NBC Universal and the private equity firms The Blackstone Group and Bain Capital. For more information, visit www.weather.com/press.

CONTACT: 
Tracy Lott
Atlanta Track Club
tlott@atlantatrackclub.or
404.231.9064 x 13